


Love Signs a Way

by Onhiro



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Amputee Diana Cavendish, F/F, Fluffy, Physical Disability, Racing, deaf akko, restaurant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:15:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23265286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onhiro/pseuds/Onhiro
Summary: More than a decade ago, two little girls were involved in a terrible accident at what was supposed to be the biggest and greatest of Shiny Chariot shows. One would be made deaf, the other would lose her leg. Now, after years of coming to terms with and adapting to their disabilities, their paths are to cross once more...
Relationships: Diana Cavendish/Atsuko "Akko" Kagari
Comments: 122
Kudos: 327





	1. The Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [superevilbadguy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/superevilbadguy/gifts).



Prologue

Atsuko “Akko” Kagari had always been a girl of big dreams. When she was only three, she wanted to be the brave explorer who would go out and find where the dinosaurs had gone, and be famous as the girl who discovered living dinosaurs! Then at four, she wanted to be a princess like in the movies, brave and strong and fearless. A week after her fifth birthday, she solemnly told her parents that she wanted to be an astronaut, to go into space and see the stars. Did all of these interests coincide with what she loved at each of those ages? Maybe. Did that mean that she didn’t believe in those dreams with every ounce of her little heart? Of course not!

But then, she found out what she _truly_ wanted to be, she found her passion: Shiny Chariot. The very first time that Akko saw Shiny Chariot on her television screen, she was in love. Shiny Chariot was everything she ever wanted to be: brave, cunning, beautiful, talented, and so much more! Akko couldn’t get enough of her…she didn’t miss a single episode of the television show that started Chariot’s rise into stardom. Each episode _always_ ended with Chariot smiling at the screen, and Akko just _knew_ that her idol was talking to her when she said that a believing heart was her magic, and that if Akko believed in herself, she could do _anything_. Then of course the dolls, the figurines, the trading card game, Shiny Chariot’s music, her movies…Akko did whatever she had to in order to get the next thing that Chariot did. Her parents had at first been a bit concerned, but all official merchandise that had Chariot’s name attached to it was considered non-profit and all additional proceedings went to charities and aid organizations. Akko, of course, was too young to understand any of what that meant, all she knew was that if she did an extra special job on her chores and helped out her neighbors with stuff that a little girl could do, then her parents would continue to get the Shiny Chariot stuff that she loved so very much.

Of course, her parents totally expected this to be a phase, just as her other interests had been. But there was something truly wonderful and magical about Chariot that held Akko’s attention, that made her want to be the best she could be. And Akko wasn’t the only one so effected. Chariot became an international phenomenon, and there was talk of her reaching the same level as Mister Rogers, of having that much of a positive impact on the world. But alas…it was not meant to be. All things must fade, and the stars that shine the brightest are often the ones that fall the hardest. It was merely Akko’s misfortune that she was caught in Chariot’s orbit when her downfall took place.

It was supposed to be the happiest day of Akko’s life, and had seemed like it was meant to be. It was Akko’s ninth birthday, and she and her parents were visiting her mother’s family in Japan when her grandparents revealed a wonderful surprise: Shiny Chariot was having what was to be her biggest show yet in Tokyo, and her grandparents had gotten tickets to the show the moment they had become available. That had been the one thing that Akko hadn’t been able to do yet, actually see Shiny Chariot in person. It had seemed like a dream come true.

It had all started so wonderfully. Shiny Chariot’s shows were already famous for utilizing the latest in technology in order to be as entertaining as possible, and this show was supposed to be bigger and better than anything she had done before. All that nine year old Akko knew was that it was _magical_. Mythological creatures seemed to appear in thin air, and Chariot and her fellow cast members weaved a captivating story, and Akko could barely contain her excitement when it seemed like a fairy appeared right in front of her before flying up into the air and joining the throng of all the other creatures that had appeared amongst the audience.

But then…disaster.

Shiny Chariot was up in the air over the audience when the pyrotechnics misfired on the stage, striking and setting one of the main support columns of the set aflame. Akko…would never be able to clearly recall what happened next, as everything devolved into pure chaos. The look of terror on her parents’ face as her dad lost his grip on her in the panicked stampede of the crowd. The sight of hundreds of feet running past the seats that she cowered under while the fire grew rapidly. The screams and Chariot’s voice booming out over the speakers as she cried out in horrified French. The sound of screaming metal, and she had looked up to see scaffolding collapsing down upon her, and she had frozen, unable to move as the metal hurtled down at her.

Impact.

Darkness.

When she had woken up, she was in the hospital, her parents sitting by her bed. She had been in pain, particularly in her head, but it hadn’t seemed any worse than any of the times that she had broken a bone doing something crazy growing up. But then her parents had started talking to her, and Akko stared at them in confusion. Their lips were moving, but she couldn’t hear a word that they said.

That was her first moment in her new world of silence.

Confusion, fear, worry, and anxiety consumed her in those first weeks. Not just for her, but also for Chariot. She knew with every ounce of her heart that Chariot wouldn’t ever hurt her, that whatever happened wasn’t her fault. But the adults didn’t seem to know that, didn’t seem to care. There was so much confusion, so much hate, so much anger. Even though the investigations found that it was a technical mistake that had caused the problem, that no one was truly at fault, Chariot had weathered the blame and taken full responsibility. Thankfully no one had died, but there had been several severe injuries amongst the audience and cast. Chariot pledged that she would devote all the resources available to her to ensure that all medical bills and continuing treatment would be paid for, and that whatever she could do to make up for the terrible accident that had happened, she would do.

Akko had broken down while watching that news conference, crimson eyes reading the subtitles and seeing the look of defeat on her idol’s face, and Akko had pressed her hand against the television screen as she had sobbed out her grief, not only for the loss of her hearing but also for the loss of her hero. Chariot would try to continue on, but given the massive publicity of what had happened, no venue wanted to touch her, no studio wanted to air her. Within a few months of the accident, Shiny Chariot had all but disappeared.

But…Akko wouldn’t give up! She wouldn’t give up on Shiny Chariot, because Shiny Chariot had never given up on her! All those times that Chariot had told her to believe in herself would not go to waste! Akko would take those earnest words of encouragement and reach the stars with them behind her, urging her ever onwards! And no matter what anyone else said about Chariot, Akko would believe in her like Chariot believed in her! She _would_ be an idol and bring joy and hope to the world just as Chariot had!

Her family had been less than enthused by her declaration, and warned her that her dream was impossible. How could she be an idol when she couldn’t hear? When her speech was slurred at best, unintelligible at worst? It is good to have dreams, her father had told her with tears in his eyes, but dreams have to be tempered with reality, and the reality was that she couldn’t hear.

But she was Atsuko Kagari! Impossible was not a word in her vocabulary! She threw everything she had in to doing everything possible to achieve that dream. By the time she was ten, she had learned American Sign Language, and then Japanese Sign Language and French Sign Language when she was eleven and twelve. She began to plan shows, trying to make them as accessible as possible. If people who could still hear had sign language translators, why not the other way around? She began to reach out to various disability support groups when she was fourteen, and by the time she was fifteen, she was sending videos to auditions, trying to see who was interested in a deaf Japanese-American idol.

No one seemed to be. The next few years passed, and as high school graduation loomed, it seemed as though her dad had been right. No matter how enthusiastic she was, no matter her passion, it seemed as though the world was not ready for a deaf idol.

But then, the letter that changed her life arrived. She had known that Shiny Chariot had been true to her word all those years ago…Akko’s family never saw a single bill throughout the years, not for the hospital visits, not for the sign language classes, not for anything that was connected with her disability. But this letter, this letter was special. Everything else had been handled through lawyers, the notices and letters written in dry legalese, but the letter that waited for her after she got out of school that autumn of her senior year was written by Shiny Chariot herself!

Chariot’s letter (that Akko had very carefully laminated in order to preserve it forever because how could she _not_?) explained that advances in hearing aid technology was now reaching the point where they were restoring hearing in individuals who would have otherwise needed surgery or a cochlear implant. That had been something that Akko and her family had been resistant to from the beginning, especially Akko. While the media had all but crucified Chariot, they had understood that it really had been an accident, and they had been content with what assistance they had received, and hadn’t wanted to ask even more from Chariot when she was facing such difficulties. But now, with this letter…

Chariot went on to explain how an Italian inventor by the name of Croix Meridies was interested in helping those who had been effected by the accident, and she had already helped developed various prosthetics that were now going into mainstream production. Now she was researching other aids to those who had suffered disabilities, and first on her list was Akko and her hearing loss. If Akko was interested, she could be the case study upon which the new hearing aids were tested. On paper, she was 100% deaf in both ears, but this Meridies believed that her design could help Akko hear again. Would she be interested in testing the hearing aids out so that others in her position might be able to hear again without expensive and invasive surgery?

Akko couldn’t say yes quickly enough.

She first heard again during winter break. Meridies had met them in their home, looking suspiciously like David Bowie (not that Akko would ever say that to her face) rather than a doctor or a scientist, but she had been professional if not a bit brusque. Akko was pretty good at reading lips by that point, and had nodded as Meridies explained that there would be some issues that needed to be ironed out and that the technology wasn’t perfect, so any feedback would be appreciated. The two hearing aids that she produced looked sleek and shiny like they belonged on Star Trek, and she had shown Akko how to put them in. Then she had fiddled with the control unit.

“Can…can she hear us?” came her mother’s voice, quiet and distant and hard to make out. But Akko had heard it, heard that voice that she had missed so much, that she had only heard in her distant memories and her dreams, and Akko had gasped, hands flying to her mouth as the tears gathered in her eyes before rolling down her cheeks.

“H-hai!” she had cried, and then she was desperately embracing her family, sobbing and laughing and talking and _hearing it all_.

And that? That was just the beginning. The hard work had only just begun.

For starters, her ability to speak had greatly diminished over the years, and if she wanted to be understood, she needed to use sign or a journal. Now that she could hear again, she realized just how bad it was. The first step in realizing her dream was to learn how to speak without slurring or mumbling. So, for the first time in her life, she personally asked for something from Chariot: a speech pathologist, the best in the business, someone who could help her talk and sing.

She was referred to a new pathologist, a young woman by the name of Ursula Callistis, who was as kind as she was supportive, and her tutelage mixed with Akko’s determination meant that her speech got better by leaps and bounds. She hardly seemed to sleep at all that senior year, not only because of her work with Croix and Ursula, but also because she became the proud member of a group helping disabled teens come to terms with who they were. Sucy Manbavaran was blind in one eye after her biological mother…well, suffice to say, Sucy was safe with her adoptive mother and the woman who did that to her wouldn’t be out of prison for a long time. Constanze was a girl who immigrated from Germany and who was mute, and Akko was having a blast learning GSL from her, and Jasminka was Russian-American and had an eating disorder that she was getting under control. Akko had made sure that the girls she met in the group became friends with Lotte and Amanda, her best friends from school, and soon they were all inseparable.

Then came graduation, and everything changed and yet stayed the same. Amanda joined the Army Reserves to be a cook, with the plan to get skilled enough to open a restaurant with Jas and Cons, and after she got back from Basic Training and AIT, she had invited all the others to come and chip together for a big apartment. It was more expensive, but all six of them together could scrounge together enough to make rent while Lotte, Jas, and Cons went to the local community college (no, not Luna Nova, the prestigious university that sat just outside of town and was practically a city in and of itself) and Sucy, Amanda, and Akko began to work full time at the local Applebee’s (something about the owner owing Amanda’s folks a favor…Akko knew better than to ask), with Lotte joining them part time. And whenever Akko got the chance, she was performing! She had a street corner that was practically hers now, and she had her own YouTube channel, and made sure to hit up Blytonbury Community College and Luna Nova University on their open mic nights and had a decent following.

Honestly? Akko wouldn’t change a thing, not even after all these years. Her disability was part of who she was, as it was for the other girls. Yes, her hearing aids were still finicky and being polished even now, four years after she had started working with Croix. If she didn’t have her aids in, she couldn’t hear squat, and if she got really excited she would slur her words, and she still watched people’s mouths rather than look them in the eye and she knew that sometimes made people uncomfortable. But being deaf was part of her identity now, and she didn’t really view it as being _disabled_. She was hearing impaired, yes, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her! Sure, she hadn’t gotten her big break yet, she was still small in the entertainment industry, but dammit, she was now 21, she lived with her best friends in all the world, her family loved and supported her, and she was going to go places!

She was Akko Kagari, and she had always been a girl with big dreams! Someday soon, she was going to reach up and grasp the stars themselves, and then the world would see! The world would see that a believing heart was magical, that if you simply believed in yourself, you could do _anything_!

Akko Kagari, 21 year old waitress at Applebee’s and aspiring idol, grinned widely as she stared up at the starry night sky in her restaurant’s parking lot, lifting her arm up and reaching for the sky with fingers stretched wide. Her destiny was waiting for her, all she had to do was take it!

“Yo, Akko, you coming or what?” her hearing aid transmitted her friend’s voice into her ear, and she dropped her arm before making her way over to where Amanda was waiting by her Subaru.

“Yup!” she called out brightly, even as optimism bubbled in her chest. This year was going to be different, she could just _feel_ it.

…little did she know just how right her feelings would be, for she was soon to meet the person who would change her world forever!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading the prologue to this story! The next chapter will be posted on Saturday the 28th. I hope you enjoyed this, and can't wait to see your reactions as this goes on!


	2. A Girl and Her Jag

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A decade and a half ago, Diana Cavendish was involved in a terrible accident that resulted in a grievous injury to her, taking the lower half of her left leg from her. But she refused to let her handicap keep her down! Now, in her senior year of her undergraduate studies, she's decided to blow off some steam at the local racetrack. After all, when she was behind the wheel of her Jaguar, it didn't matter if her left leg was amputated...behind the wheel, she was power and speed!

Chapter One

Diana Cavendish was lithe grace…she was tightly controlled power…she was sitting behind the wheel of her Jaguar F-Type SVR Coupe, the powerful V8 engine growling as she slid through the tenth curve of the racetrack just outside Blytonbury, the only driver currently on the track…benefits to being a major sponsor of the course, she supposed. Both her hands were on the steering wheel, fingers resting lightly on the shifting paddles, and she was already in manual override. When out on the highway, she preferred automatic, let the car control the gears, but here on the course, she wanted as much control as possible.

“Okay, you’re doing good,” Hannah’s voice sounded in her ear via her earpiece. She and Barbara were in the control tower, providing analysis of Diana’s performance. A key facet to her skills as a driver. “Hold it steady at a hundred.”

Diana’s blue eyes glanced through the visor of her full faced helmet at her speedometer, the needle hovering over the 100 km/h mark, just over 60mph for the Yanks. “No troubles. She handles a bit better than the XK-R did,” she replied, her sound activated microphone transmitting her words to Hannah and Barbara. She was coming up on the eleventh and last curve on the track, this one sharper than the tenth, and for a moment she hesitated before swinging wide to the left so that she could cut to the inside of the right turn. Every degree she could shave off the turn was speed that she could maintain, and this was a controlled lap...time to see just how well the SVR could handle itself. She stuck at the 100 km/h mark as she cut in on the curve.

She could feel it when it happened, that split second when the rear tires started to kick out to the left, but then the car did exactly what it was supposed to do, the AWD activating, front tires pulling to compensate for the loss of control in the back, and she powered through the 90 degree turn without losing much in the way of speed, and she grinned behind the helmet’s face. This was the first time she had had the chance to really test out the car since she had bought it, and it was doing splendidly. She was now in the final straightaway heading towards the finish line and the pit, and she held it at that steady 100 km/h, keeping it in third gear. Perhaps a bit hot, the rpms higher and the engine growling…fourth would have handled the speed quite well, but she wanted to higher rpms for what was just about to happen. Her hands tightened on the steering wheel, excitement thrumming through her as the finish line drew closer.

The second she crossed it, Hannah’s voice sounded in her ear: “Punch it.”

Her right foot sank the accelerator pump to the floor, body rocking back into the seat at the sudden acceleration, engine howling at as the RPMs surged, and she hurtled towards the first turn. “Control lap holding at one hundred, time three minutes thirty-seven seconds. Not bad for a 5.43 km course. Now let’s see what you can really do,” Barbara’s voice informed her, and Diana didn’t bother to answer her…her concentration was elsewhere.

The Jaguar F-Type SVR Coupe. The stock model boasted a 567 hp V8 engine, capable of a top speed of 322 km/h and of going from 0 to 97 km/h in 3.5 seconds. The dynamic AWD system meant that it stayed in rear wheel drive most of the time, with the AWD only kicking in at the loss of control in the rear tires. And Diana wasn’t just driving a stock model, she had upgraded some key components to bring weight down and improve performance. She wasn’t entirely certain _just_ how fast she could get it to go, but she knew she could beat 322 km/h!

First turn. Tighter than ninety degrees. A glance at her speedometer showed her going 160 km/h, and she braked, dropping back down through the gears as she roared through the curve before punching it again, right fingers tapping the shifting paddle as the engine greedily accelerated. Turn two was over ninety degrees, and she was able to take it considerably faster than she took the first turn. Turns three and four were even easier, and she rocketed through them both at 130 km/h, leading her into the back straight, the longest straightaway of the course.

The engine roared, screaming its power into the air as she pushed the car for everything it had, and Diana’s heart pounded in her chest as she let herself get lost to it all…the road streaking by her, the roar of the engine, the feel of the car operating around her, thrumming and vibrant and _alive_. Here, in this car, behind this wheel, she wasn’t limited, she wasn’t disabled, she wasn’t _crippled_. Here she had no limits. Here she could ignore that her left leg was…

“Diana, _slow down!_ ”

At Hannah’s sharp bark, Diana blinked, took her foot off that gas just as she pushed past 250 km/h and braked in preparation for heading in to the inner loop leading into the fifth turn, the infamous outer loop…before they had put in the inner loop to force drivers to bleed off some of their speed, racers had died from going too fast on the Back Straight and losing control heading in to the fifth turn…just as Diana had almost done. Lose concentration just for a second. “Thanks,” she murmured through grit teeth as she sailed into the inner loop, now wholly focused on the race. Her best time in her old Jag XK-R was 1:47.576…she wanted to beat that and wouldn’t if her head was in the clouds. Thus resolved, she threw everything she had to pushing herself and the car to the absolute limits of the race. The Outer Loop leading in to the Chute, the gradual curve into the Toe, down along the bottom of The Boot, around the Heel, then it was a hard turn at the ninth where she had to slow down the most, the SVR almost complaining as it shuddered through the curve, Diana’s body being pulled hard to the side as friction and inertia fought to see which would win…friction would be the victor, keeping Diana’s car on the road. She headed back into the tenth curve, tearing around it and heading into the eleventh. She conquered that, too, and grinned as she roared towards the finish, barely even hearing the excited shouts in her ear as she blew past the line.

Final time? 1:38.886, a new personal record!

xxxXXXxxx

She would take one more lap (that dragged a few seconds after her first) before bringing her car to the extensive garage located just off the pit stop. The pit was to be used during races, but the garage was where the real magic happened. There was a race that weekend, and some of the teams had already arrived and were working on the last minute modifications and touches to their cars, making sure that everything was perfect for the coming trials. Diana barely glanced at them as she drove to the very end of the massive bay, where she had her own spot tucked out of the way. The full time garage staff were already waiting for her as she carefully drove over the lift and got out of the car, making sure to grab her cane from the passenger side. She was limping slightly as she took enough steps to get out of the way before she paused and pulled off her helmet, shaking her sweat damp hair out, sighing with relief as her head was freed from the tight confines of the helmet.

Already the crew was lifting her car into the air, and while she was taking a shower and changing, they would take off her racing tires and put on her street tires. A good arrangement, and she _always_ made sure to treat them extraordinarily well and tip them generously. By all rights, they could tell her to kick rocks and focus on helping the professional racers with their work rather than help an amateur racer like her. But then, Cavendish Medical Technologies did provide enough in donations that the track could afford to staff a skeleton garage crew in the first place. Without her family’s company, these men and women might not be given the opportunity to work on some of the fastest cars in the nation.

Seeing that all was well in hand, she made her way to the adjacent crew locker room and shower facilities, heading towards the smaller women’s side, wincing as she leaned heavily on her cane with every other step. She was spending too much time on her feet at school. Thankfully, being on the end of the garage meant that while she was farthest from the track, she was closest to the facilities, and it wasn’t long before she was standing before her locker, stowing her helmet and zipping out of the full body racing suit, shivering as her sweaty skin was exposed to the cooler air of the locker room. She was only wearing boxer briefs, her sports bra, and a plain t-shirt underneath the fire resistant suit…no sense in getting anything else sweaty.

She looked up at the sound of the door opening, and grinned a greeting at Hannah and Barbara as they joined her. “Good run,” Hannah commented as Diana slipped her legs out of the suit and hanged it up in her locker before grabbing her shower shoe and slipping it on. She nodded her thanks as Barbara grabbed her duffel bag holding her toiletries, towel, and a change of clothes, and the three of them made their way to the showers, where Diana glanced longingly at the rows of shower head mounted on columns. No, it was the handicap seat that had a detachable shower head on a hose that she went to, peeling off her shirt, bra, and briefs before sitting down on the cold plastic. Then it was merely a matter of removing her leg while Barbara pulled her shampoo, conditioner, bar of soap, and loofah out of her bag.

As always, Diana mentally catalogued the fifteen year old injury as she began to undo the straps of her prosthetic. Left leg below the knee amputation caused by severe crushing of the bones of her lower leg and laceration caused by falling scaffolding at the Shiny Chariot show years ago. For a long time she had hated her leg. Now, it was merely a part of her. She absently handed Hannah the leg before turning on the shower head, directing the spray away from her so that the water could warm up. Then she was hissing slightly as she pulled the neoprene sock off the end of the stump. It had a gel pouch at the end of it to help with friction, but the fact would always remain the same: the end of an amputation site wasn’t exactly the friendliest towards long periods of pressure, and she was spending a _lot_ of time on her feet at school. It was going to be worse when she started clinicals in grad school…

“Do you need your cream?” Hannah asked, and Diana nodded, accepting the tube of the medicinal and anti-inflammatory cream when her friend held it out and placing it on the floor by her right foot. She’d put it on after she was done washing off the sweat of the drive. Thankfully it didn’t take all that long to wash up, the warm water feeling good against her sweaty skin, and she quickly soaped up, taking special care to wash the end of her stump, fingers careful over the long healed surgical scars. Then it was just rinsing off before washing and conditioning her hair before she was toweling away the moisture, listening to the small talk between Hannah and Barbara and suddenly feeling a surge of warmth towards her two oldest friends. She could have done this all without them… _had_ done all this without them, but having them there to help her made life immeasurably easier in many ways. And given that they had no obligation to follow her from Britain to the US when she decided that she wanted to attend the prestigious Luna Nova University for all eight years of her schooling…she couldn’t think of anyone that she would rather have by her side. They never judged her for her injury, and were always willing to lend a helping hand, whether or not she asked for it. She could not ask for firmer friends.

Finally she was applying the cream to the end of her amputated leg, and she made sure that the rest of the skin was completely devoid of moisture before she was carefully rolling the thick sock back on, gel pad snug against the stump. Then it was merely a matter of reattaching the leg, and she very carefully stood. The prosthetic wasn’t the best on wet floors, after all. Wrapping her towel around herself, she and the other two made their way back to the locker room, and Diana changed back into her street clothes: a pair of fitted slacks and oxfords and a tasteful blouse. A tasteful but expensive watch for her wrist and an elegant necklace completed the ensemble, save for her designer leather jacket that was waiting for her in the trunk of the car, along with her purse.

Speaking of, the three of them made their way back to the garage, where the crew was wrapping up their task. “Dinner?” Diana asked lightly as the lift slowly brought her car back down to the floor of the garage.

“I’m pretty hungry so I don’t know if I really want to fight through the campus dinner rush on or near campus,” Hannah suggested, and Barb nodded.

“Hmm. Then perhaps the Applebee’s downtown?” Diana suggested, and couldn’t help the amused huff that escaped her at the matching looks of distaste on her friends’ faces.

“Ugh, Applebee’s?” Hannah asked with a disgusted sneer.

“Diana, that’s practically fast food!” Barbara added.

Diana rolled her eyes as the techs nodded that they were done, and she pulled the check that she had written even before coming to the track out of the pocket of her slacks. Enough to be considered overtime for how long it took the crew to replace her tires, and it was enough to cover all three of them. This in addition to the pay they already received just for being on station. Never let it be said that she didn’t reward people handsomely for their work. “Well, all the other good places are close to campus and likely swarmed with our peers by now. So unless you really do want fast food or a submarine sandwich, then Applebee’s is about our best bet.” Seeing the look of indecision on their faces, she went for the kill: “And they serve alcohol.”

Hannah gave an exasperated sigh. “Fiiiiiine, we’ll go to Applebee’s. Eat their crappy food and drink their not so crappy booze.” She and Barbara turned and started towards the exit at the side of the bay, and Diana’s eyebrow quirked up.

“Neither of you want to ride with me?” she asked, and they shot warm smiles over their shoulders at her. One of the downsides to her car…it only had two seats in it.

“Sorry, darling, but we just got to a really good part of the _Nightfall_ audiobook…volume two hundred seventy-three,” Barbara said, and Hannah rolled her eyes.

“Took us this long to get to something that can actually hold my interest,” she muttered, and Diana laughed. Hannah liked to tease Barbara for her passion bordering on obsession for the (how to say this politely…) _expansive_ book series, but there were some arcs that had apparently caught her interest, and the two had quite happily deepened their already strong friendship with one another over the series. Another reason to be thankful for their friendship…the two were thick as thieves, and it was hard to imagine one without the other close by. If Diana didn’t know absolutely certain to the contrary, it would have been very easy to think of the two as being in a romantic relationship. While the two certainly loved each other, it was entirely a platonic love, not a romantic love.

“Right, then, I’ll be sure to drive exactly the speed limit so that you two have extra time to enjoy the story,” she called out, and they laughed as they turned and continued onwards, Hannah lifting a hand over her head in a lazy wave, and Diana made her own way to her car, handing the check to George before she slid into the driver’s seat, feeling instantly at home and at ease as she brushed almost reverential hands over the steering wheel, the leaping jaguar in the center of the wheel winking softly in the light of the garage, and she smiled. She was going to love being a doctor of medicine specializing in children with disabilities, but she had a _passion_ for driving. She wouldn’t want to be a professional driver, but having the chance to roar through a course, pushing machine and body to the limit…there was very little else like it in all the world.

She started the car, the dull burbling roar filling the garage, and she backed out from the lift before driving out of the garage, smirking a little at how the crews working on the other cars almost reflexively looked up to watch her as she passed. In that instant, she wasn’t an amputee, she was a talented young woman driving a finely tuned car that could honestly give some of the cars they were working on a run for their money. She knew her lap time was good enough to pass for professional driving. Giving a little waggle of her fingers for the crews closest to the bay doors leading to the track, she exited the garage and headed towards the parking lot where she’d link up with Barbara and her BMW. They then made their way to Blytonbury, Diana enjoying the drive and the beautiful sunset and Gustav Holst’s _Jupiter_ , one of her favorite pieces of classical music…certainly enjoyable enough to listen to on repeat during the drive where she was true to her word: she stuck to exactly the speed limit, smirking a little at the looks of surprise that she got from the people who passed by on the main multilane highway. She could almost certainly smoke any other car on the road, and yet here she was driving a sedately 88 km/h or 55 mph.

It was a good forty minutes from the track to Blytonbury, and an additional ten minutes past that to pull into the parking lot of the Applebee’s, which thankfully didn’t look too busy. Not surprising, given that it was a Tuesday evening. The sun had truly set by now, merely a glow on the western horizon to show its passing, and the temperature dropped enough with it that Diana got her jacket out of the trunk and put it on before grabbing her wallet from her purse as Hannah and Barbara joined her, arguing about something or other that had happened in the story during the drive.

“Ready, ladies?” she asked, and they paused their bickering only to agree with her before they were back at it, and Diana smiled at their antics as they made their way to the restaurant, Diana careful to lock her Jaguar with a press of a button.

Of course, had they known what was to happen during their dinner, Hannah and Barbara would have insisted on eating _anywhere_ else, even the McDonalds on the sketchy side of town, as that surely would have been better than the fiasco that was about to unfold.

Diana? Diana would have been furious with herself for not coming to the chain restaurant sooner, for within its walls worked someone who would capture her interest like no one else ever had before…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the racecourse Diana was driving is based off of a real course just over an hour from my house: Watkins Glen International. So the turns and curves I described are actually real, and Diana's time is on par with professional racers. Next chapter will be posted Saturday the 4th, and will be from Akko's POV.


	3. When A Goddess Walks Into Your Restaurant...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was like any other weeknight shift for Akko. Trying to avoid being on the manager's shit list, dealing with grumpy customers and noisy children, just trying her darnedest to get through the night so she could go home. And that was when a goddess and her two friends walked through the door...Akko is, of course, determined to give the goddess the best Applebee's experience _ever_!
> 
> Unfortunately, when did anything _ever_ go the way that it was supposed to?

Never in a million years would Akko expect a goddess to walk into the mortal realm of her humble restaurant. In fact, there surely had to be laws in place to keep someone as flawless as _that_ removed from the mortal masses. And yet, on that otherwise completely normal Tuesday evening, the very definition of beauty walked through the doors. It was merely a matter of luck that Akko was passing by Lotte who was greeter, and the tray of drinks that she was delivering to one of her tables was suddenly nowhere near as important as frantically smacking Lotte on the shoulder with the back of her hand. “Lotte! Hey, Lotte!” she hissed under her breath as she watched Goddess and her two (nowhere even in the same universe as being as attractive as the tall blonde who fairly radiated grace and charm and beauty) friends talked amongst each other.

“Ow, Akko, what?” Lotte hissed back as she turned slightly annoyed eyes on her.

“I will do _anything_ if you give me those three!” Akko said dramatically, and Lotte glanced at her and then at the three still standing by the door, talking. Then Lotte was rolling her eyes, even as a bemused smile briefly touched her lips.

“As luck would so have it, you’re next in the chute anyway, so congratulations,” she said dryly, and Akko’s face lit up like a 4th of July fireworks show. Ah, fate! How kind thou art! “Unless they choose bar.” And just like that, Akko’s face fell like it was dropped off the Empire State Building.

Oh my God that would be terrible! The bar was run by Elfriede, and Akko wasn’t allowed anywhere near it for...reasons. That would be terrible, a cruel jest on a cosmic level if she would be denied serving the radiant Goddess like that!

Lotte sighed at the devastated look on Akko’s face. “Go deliver your drinks before you lose any chance of a tip and I’ll see what I can do,” she promised.

“You’re the best, Lotte!” Akko sang out before she did as she was told, though it was horrifically difficult not to look over at the trio as they spoke briefly with Lotte, and Akko had to apologize when she handed the wrong drink to a patron.

But it was worth it and the Hallelujah Chorus might as well have started playing because Lotte led the three past the bar to one of Akko’s tables. There was a God and He answered prayers!

Akko forgot three very important things in that moment. 1. Be careful what you wish for. 2. Murphy’s Law applied to restaurants just as much as it did to the military. 3. Real life very rarely goes the way that one expects it to...

It all started normally enough. Akko practically flounced up to where the three were sitting with a beaming smile, hoping that she looked okay. She was wearing her hair down instead of up in its signature half ponytail, and hopefully didn’t look like a hot mess. “Hi, there, ladies! My name is Akko and I’ll be taking care of you tonight! Would you like to hear about our specials tonight?”

The blonde goddess smiled gently at her, and Akko nearly swooned on the spot. “Yes, please, Akko, we would much appreciate it,” she said, voice smooth and beautiful and with an English accent, and Akko was never more thankful for her hearing aids than at this moment. It would have been a terrible world to be in, had she not been able to hear the angel’s voice.

“Of course!” she replied, and dutifully rattled through the evening’s specials, even as she saw how their eyes glazed over. She wondered how many people who went to restaurants realized just how transparent they were…most of the time, people didn’t care about the specials. It seemed like these three were no different. “Do you know what you’d like to drink?” she asked, suddenly hoping that they asked for alcohol. Maybe a bit stalker-ish, but she wanted to know the blonde’s name.

Luck wasn’t on her side. “I’ll just have iced water, hold the lemon,” the blonde said.

“Long Island Iced Tea,” the redhead ordered.

“Angry Orchard for me,” the dark-haired girl said.

“Excellent. I’ll need to see some IDs,” she said, and waited as the two of them pulled out their wallets and produced the cards, which proved to be from England. Hannah England and Barbara Parker, both over 21. Good. “Alright, I’ll be right back with those!” Too bad the blonde didn’t want something harder to drink. Ah, well, nothing much she could do about that, she mused as she headed over to the bar to get their order. It was then that the first of many, many things to go wrong happened. There was a crackle in her left ear, followed by complete silence, and her stride paused as she pulled out her phone, quickly stepping to the side and thumbing over to the app the hearing aids were connected to. The left one was black. The battery had died. _Great_. She thought she had completely plugged it in last night before she went to bed, but she hadn’t, and by the time she had realized that its battery was too low, she was already out for the day. She had hoped that it would last her through her shift, but no dice. Eh, well, she had her right aid, that would be more than enough.

Getting their drinks, she quickly returned to the table, still smiling brightly even as a flicker of annoyance ran through her. The hearing aids weren’t perfect, and with both of them working at full capacity, she still only had a good 50% hearing. Enough to take orders in a quiet restaurant, but with one of them down…

She carefully set the drinks in front of the three of them. “Are you ready to order?” she asked as she tucked the tray she had carried the drinks on under her arm and pulled out her notepad.

“Yeah, we’ll have the spinach and artichoke dip for an appetizer,” Miss England said, and Akko dutifully started writing down the order in her messy chicken scratch, “and I’ll have the six ounce top sirloin, medium rare…and I’m sorry, but do I have something in my teeth?”

The question was delivered in an annoyed voice, and Akko blinked as her eyes flitted up towards unamused hazel eyes. _Kuso_! She had started watching her lips to help prevent a mess up with her order on reflex since her left hearing aid had malfunctioned…didn’t want to put in a wrong order, but apparently the girl had found her staring to be offensive. Akko felt a blush touch her cheeks as she stammered out a reply. “Oh! Um, no, you don’t, miss, sorry, I just…six ounce top sirloin, medium rare?” she offered meekly, blush deepening, and Miss England just stared at her for a moment with a slight frown before she rolled her eyes.

“Yes, and the garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli for the sides.”

“Of course, miss,” Akko said, still blushing as she turned to the dark-haired girl, this time careful to keep her eyes north of the mouth even as she turned her head slightly to the side so that her right ear was closer. “And for you?”

Miss Parker was staring at her with a slightly suspicious look. “Blackened Cajun Salmon. Chips and your vegetable medley for the sides.”

Akko hesitated, confused by her requested sides. “Chips, miss? We have tortilla chips for the appetizers if that’s what you’d like.”

Miss Parker rolled her eyes. “Sorry, _fries_. Bloody Americans can’t even call chips the right thing…”

And if Akko wasn’t already on the manager’s shit list, she probably would have retorted at that. What did they expect? They were in the US, not England! Writing down ‘fries’ and underlining it with perhaps a bit more force than was necessary, she turned her attention to the goddess, and she didn’t have to force a smile on her face for her…the expression was genuine. “And last but most certainly not least, what would you like, miss?” she said with a beaming grin, and the blonde seemed a bit taken aback at the exuberance of her expression, leaning slightly back in her seat as her eyebrows raised slightly. Uh-oh. Did she overdo it?

But then the blonde did a Mona Lisa smile, and Akko’s heart practically melted at the slight and secretive expression. “I’ll have the Tuscan Garden Chicken Salad… _Akko_.”

She could die a happy girl, right then and there! “Ab-so-lutely!” Akko said as she carefully wrote down the order with significantly neater handwriting than she had used for the other two. Alright, her two mean friends’ behavior aside, she was gonna give the goddess the best Applebee’s experience she had ever had! It was with this thought that Akko went back to the kitchen to place the order.

Unfortunately…well, things didn’t turn out quite that way.

As her friends kept telling her, when Akko got an idea in her mind, she put everything towards it, at least until she was distracted by the next bright and shiny thing. Given that the mysterious blonde from England was absolutely the brightest and shiniest thing in Akko’s worldview at that moment, that meant that the poor girl would be the focus of _all_ of Akko’s attention. For worse. Yeah…there really wasn’t a better in how she acted during their dinner, Akko would come to grudgingly admit later.

It all started with the drinks. Replenishing drinks was one of the most important things for a waitress to do, besides taking and placing orders. Paying attention to drink levels and making timely offers to refills was of paramount importance to getting a good tip. It made patrons feel important, that their needs were being paid attention to.

What that didn’t mean was interrupting a dinner every five minutes or whenever someone had taken so much as two sips of their drinks…

“Can I interest you in a refill?” Akko asked brightly to the table at large, and the three of them paused their conversation to look at her, the blonde looking more confused compared to the other two’s irritation. This was the third time that Akko had approached them in the span of fifteen minutes, and the three of them glanced at their drinks, none of which were actually lower than three-quarters full.

“No… _thank_ you,” Miss England said, annoyance clear on her face. “If you want to be helpful, you can go check on our appetizer.”

“Hannah!” the blonde admonished lightly even while Miss Parker laughed. It was at that moment that Akko realized that her chance for a decent tip was dropping like a rock and that while she was almost certainly making an impression, it wasn’t a good one.

“Yes, right away, sorry,” Akko blurted out before spinning on her heel and fairly fleeing the table, retreating to the kitchen with a hot, embarrassed blush painted across her cheeks. She just wanted to make this a really good dining experience for the mysterious and gorgeous blonde, and she was screwing it up already. _Baka! Baka, baka, baka!_ By some small measure of grace, their appetizer was ready for them, and so Akko collected the tray up and brought it back to the table, only for her stride to pause when she noticed that Parker and England were giving the blonde annoyed and unamused looks. For a moment, Akko didn’t understand why, but then her eyes fell on the blonde’s glass of water…which was now less than a quarter full. It had just been almost full. Had she really…?

She carefully set the appetizer tray on the table and gave each of them a little plate. “Here’s your appetizer. Do you need a refill, miss?”

“Yes, please, I would very much appreciate it,” the blonde said with another small smile.

“I’ll be right back with that!” she beamed.

As she was walking away, she could just barely hear England’s annoyed voice through her hearing aid: “Don’t encourage her, Diana, or else she won’t leave us alone!”

“Diana…” she whispered softly to herself. Such a pretty name. Smiling, she went over to the drink dispenser and got a new glass of ice water. Okay, deliver this back to Diana and then check on her other tables and- _AH!_ A sharp burst of feedback and static in her right ear, the high pitched squealing loud enough that she stumbled, crying out in pain and then shock as she dropped the glass of water, spilling it all over the floor. Shit, why now?! Stupid freaking experimental hearing aids! Her trembling fingers found her right ear, flicking off the switch, the painful noises instantly disappearing as she was bathed in complete silence.

Complete. Silence.

A flutter of panic as she looked up, noticing how the tables closest to her were looking at her with concern, and she tried to smile reassuringly before she was moving to get a wet floor sign and towels to mop up the worst of the spill. God, off all the stupid times for the hearing aid to go on the fritz, it was _now_! She was gonna give Croix a piece of her mind! Great, now she was at work without functioning hearing aids!

She blinked as she suddenly remembered what she had been doing when the malfunction happened. Shit! Diana’s water! Placing the wet floor sign over the worst of the spill, she quickly filled a new glass, reflexively placing a lemon slice in it before rushing back over to the table, hoping that they hadn’t noticed her gaff. Thankfully it didn’t seem like they did, as they were in conversation, and Akko carefully placed the drink on the table with an apologetic smile. “Sorry for the delay,” she said, taking extreme care to form the words like Ursula had taught her, relying on muscle memory to ensure her words weren’t slurred or mumbled. At least…she hoped they weren’t. It was weird talking without being able to hear the individual words. She could feel the vibrations in her throat and mouth, but it definitely wasn’t the same as hearing what she was saying. She could only hope that she wasn’t making a mistake…she had no way to know. Eager to clean up the mess she had made, she turned to leave, only for someone to sharply tap her back.

She turned back around to see a very irate Miss England standing and glaring at her, arms crossed. Past her, the other two were still sitting, Diana removing the lemon from her water with a flat expression and Miss Parker also glaring at Akko. In a flash, Akko realized what happened: she got in a rush and forgot that Diana had specified no lemon in her water. Her stomach sank. She wanted to give Diana an excellent dining experience and couldn’t even remember that Diana didn’t want a freaking lemon.

Oh, wait, the auburn haired girl was talking to her. Flushing, Akko’s eyes dropped from scowling hazel eyes to moving lips. “-dare you ignore me!” they silently moved. “What are you, deaf?!”

Now, Akko was not by nature a meek girl, and if pushed enough, she would push back. “Yes,” she hissed back. “As a matter of fact, I am! My hearing aids just broke, thanks for asking!” she snapped as she brushed her hair back from her ear and turning her head so that the device in her ear could be seen.

England flinched and recoiled, only to look back at the table. Akko followed her gaze to see that Diana was saying something, but the angle wasn’t quite right, so Akko had no idea what she said. All she knew was that England gave her one last annoyed glare before sitting back down. Akko gave Diana a quick glance and a shaky smile before she fairly fled the scene. God, she felt so embarrassed, and it had been such a long time since she had really felt that her deafness was really a disability. Humiliated, flustered, and still feeling slightly angry at England, she found Lotte. “Hey, my hearing aids are jacked up,” she said and signed. “I need my other nametag, I’ll just be a minute.”

Lotte nodded with a reassuring and comforting smile, and Akko made her way to the breakdown, pulling out her hearing aids and putting them in her locker before pulling out her other nametag, the one that had sequins and little heart stickers all over it and that proudly proclaimed ‘my name is Akko, and I’m deaf!’ She stared at it for a moment before taking off her plainer nametag and put on the far more attention getting one. Okay, she could do this! She was Akko Kagari! She wouldn’t let this little hiccup get her down! She put a beaming smile on her face, and headed back out into the restaurant.

Had she known what was still to come, she would have stayed in the breakroom…


	4. Noblesse Oblige

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Right, so perhaps dinner wasn't going as well as it could have. But that certainly didn't excuse Hannah and Barbara for their behavior. They were of some of the best families of Britain, and thus should be held to a higher standard. _Noblesse oblige_ should not be empty words, but their very way of life.

Diana waited until the waitress Akko was out of earshot before she leveled a glare at the other two. “Could you be any ruder?” she hissed angrily, and they both shot her almost identical confused looks, their eyebrows quirking slightly.

“Diana, why are you whispering?” Barbara asked.

“Yeah, she’s _deaf_. You could shout and she wouldn’t be any the wiser,” Hannah added, and Diana paused, feeling a flush of embarrassment touch her cheeks. Okay, that…that was actually a good point, there really wasn’t a reason for her to be talking softly, given the circumstances. It was a force of habit, though. Despite knowing that the other girl was deaf and that she couldn’t hear them, it still felt only natural to try and speak softly.

“Be that as it may,” she continued at a more normal volume with a frown, “that does not excuse your behavior. It’s just a lemon, there was no reason for you to do that.”

“Diana, you know the reason why you don’t get lemons with your drinks is because they’re bacteria farms. It’s disgusting. And if she can’t remember something so simple as you not wanting a lemon, she’s a terrible waitress.”

Terrible was going a bit far, wasn’t it? Diana irately tapped her finger on top of the table. “Something must have happened to her hearing aids prior to her coming back with the water. She could hear us before.” She hummed thoughtfully. “It explains why she was watching your mouth when she was taking our orders, though. She was reading your lips.”

“Still doesn’t excuse her not remembering what you said though,” Barbara shot back with a stubborn glare.

Diana sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Be that as it may, can you at least give her a little break? She’s deaf, and-”

“No.” Hannah’s sharp voice cut her off, and Diana narrowed her eyes at her. “Oh, don’t give me that look! Yes, she’s deaf, but _she_ chose to be a server. If she’s unable to do her job because of her disability, she needs to find a new one. You more than anyone else should know that, Diana!” Hannah said with a meaningful glance down towards where Diana’s legs were hidden by the table. “Good on her if she’s able to be a waitress despite being deaf, but you shouldn’t bloody well use that as an excuse for her being rubbish at it!”

“She’s not rubbish!” Diana snapped back.

Barbara rolled her eyes. “Well, she’s not exactly _good_ , Diana. If it wasn’t fawning all over you and interrupting our conversation it’s forgetting that you don’t want a lemon.”

Diana sighed as she took one of the chips and scooped up some of the spinach and artichoke dip. Not the best of the dip she’d ever had, but passable, she thought to herself as she chewed. Swallowing, she leveled a flat look at the other two. “Fine, I’ll give you that. Can we please just talk about something else? How are you doing on the lab work for Lukić’s class?”

They both winced. “Umm, maybe?” Hannah offered, and Diana shot her an unamused look. Before she could say anything, the greeter led a group of young men past their table, the lot of them talking and laughing loudly, the noise jarring, and Diana winced. _Perfect_. Just what they needed.

But the group was sat a few tables down, far enough that they could be tuned out, which was a minor relief. Then Akko came back with a bright smile and a tray with their food, and Diana’s heart fluttered in her chest at the brilliant expression. You couldn’t tell that she had just had an altercation with Hannah, and Diana was impressed by that. So her service might have been a bit rubbish before, but her ability to bounce back from something like that had to be admired.

Thankfully she didn’t make any further mistakes, which was likely a good thing, with how Hannah was watching her like a hawk, eyes narrowed and lips pursed. The auburn-haired girl had already made her mind up about their server, and Akko would have to perform something akin to a miracle in order to change Hannah’s opinion of her, but at least Hannah was fair: she wouldn’t make too much trouble where there was none. Had Akko given the wrong dinner to one of them, Hannah would likely say something about it, but no mistakes were made, and Hannah stonily cut into her steak before nodding curtly. It was cooked properly.

Diana wasn’t the only one who rolled her eyes at Hannah’s snooty theatrics…Barbara joined her, which didn’t really surprise Diana. Barbara knew how dramatic Hannah could be, and this situation was just one such occasion. “Is everything to your liking?” Akko asked, and Diana noted how slowly and carefully the words came. It was obvious that the deaf girl was doing her best to enunciate clearly, something that was incredibly difficult to do when completely deaf. She must have had significant training with a speech pathologist. Interesting.

She waited until Akko was looking at her before she spoke, making sure to put proper emphasis in the movements of her mouth and lips. “Yes, thank you, Akko. It looks delightful.” Hannah snorted at that even as she tucked in to her steak. Diana ignored her.

Akko’s grin grew brighter, and Diana felt the slightest of blushes touch her cheeks, and she prayed that the others didn’t notice. She couldn’t help it, though! Akko was just…just…so bright and full of life and light. She had a hard time imagining the girl before her doing anything half-hearted, and that captivated Diana’s interest and curiosity. Plus, now that she thought about it, she seemed familiar. Where had Diana seen her before? Blytonbury wasn’t a large city, not truly, but Diana very rarely left Luna Nova and the parts of the city immediately surrounding it. It was thus unlikely that Diana bumped into her in town, unless Akko had business on campus, and even then, would Diana even notice her? Her face would be lost amongst the crowd, unless she had been doing something to draw the attention…

…where had Diana _seen_ her before?

“Diana, are you going to eat?” Barb asked, and Diana blinked, coming back to her senses to find Hannah and Barbara looking at her, and Akko was gone, likely returning the tray to the kitchen.

“Hmm? Oh, yes, right.” She poked her fork into the salad. “I can’t help but feel I’ve seen Akko before, but that can’t be, right?”

Hannah slapped her palm on the table, and both Diana and Barbara jumped at the sharp noise. “ _That’s_ where I know her from!” she exclaimed. “I _knew_ I saw her before!”

“What?” Barbara asked, her gaze flitting between Hannah and Diana.

“She’s a busker! She’s played on campus! God, that’s been bothering me this entire time, I _knew_ that I’ve seen her face before!”

Diana blinked, the memory coming back to her. That was right. It was from a distance, and Diana had been in a rush that day that she had seen Akko on campus, sitting on a stool and playing guitar and singing. Her voice had been clear and full of emotion, and Diana remembered feeling distraught at the time that she just didn’t have the time to stop and listen. So, a deaf musician who had quite a bit of talent. _Quite_ interesting. If Akko ever came back to campus, Diana would have to make sure to actually donate some money to her performance.

A loud burst of raucous laughter from the young men, and Diana glanced over her shoulder and froze, jaw tightening as anger flared. Akko was their server, and she was obviously trying to get their orders, but…they were mocking her. Diana’s hands tightened into fists as she watched how one gave his order, unable to stop his cruel laughter as his mates were hiding their mouths and saying terrible things about Akko and mockingly slurring their words like they were deaf.

“Diana…” Hannah said warningly, but Diana ignored her as she stood, and her resolve to interfere was doubled when she realized she recognized one of the blokes. She didn’t grab her cane, not enough time, and besides, if she had it, she might be inclined to whack at the knaves…

It only took a few furious and slightly limping strides before she was next to Akko, resting a hand on her shoulder as she glared at the table of fools, her face like thunder. “ _Mister_ Blackwell,” she hissed, and Lewis Blackwell looked up before he met her glare with a sneer.

“ _Miss_ Cavendish,” he returned mockingly. “What do you want?”

Diana drew in a sharp breath, almost painfully aware of how Akko was looking between her and the boys, her hands clutching her notepad, a worried look on her face. “Mocking someone with a disability without even the slightest trace of decency to allow her to defend herself whilst your friends snigger like the sycophantic fools they are…has Appleton’s standards for appropriate behavior truly fallen so low?” she snapped. “I’ll be interested to see what your headmaster thinks of your churlish behavior, _Mister_ Blackwell.”

Two angry splotches of red grew on his cheeks. “My father-!” he started, but Diana cut him off with a sharp slash of her hand.

“Your father is merely the Defense Minister of Britain. Prime Minister Hanbridge is a close family friend of the Cavendishes. Is that a gamble you truly wish to see through to the end, _sir_? I’m sure your father will also be overjoyed to hear about how you’re representing not just the Blackwell family and Appleton Academy, but also the aristocracy of Britain…”

“Is there an issue?” A cold voice that bore the strength of authority, and they all turned to see an older woman with brown hair and a severe expression, blue eyes narrowed above a hooked nose. Akko stiffened under Diana’s hand, and those cold blue eyes flicked towards the server. “Are you causing issues again, Kagari?”

“Absolutely not,” Diana cut in, hand squeezing reassuringly over Akko’s shoulder. “Miss Kagari’s hearing aids have apparently malfunctioned, and this table was ridiculing her and disturbing the dining experience of those around them.”

The woman stared at Diana for a moment before she turned to Akko. “I’m taking this table,” she said slowly as her expression softened ever so slightly. Akko nodded before turning and leaving. “Now, _gentlemen_ , I trust that there will be no further issues, yes?” she said, and even Lewis wilted slightly under those blue eyes that were as hard as diamond.

“Yes, ma’am,” they all murmured, and the woman (whose nametag read Anne F., General Manager) turned her attention to Diana.

“Thank you for sticking up for my server, I appreciate it. If you wouldn’t mind returning to your table, miss?”

Diana nodded and left without another word, satisfied with how things turned out. She ignored the exasperated looks Hannah and Barbara shot her as she finally tucked into her salad. She abhorred people who mocked others, and when that was done to someone she was starting to fancy? She couldn’t stand it in the slightest.

The three of them ate in silence, and Diana had managed to finish about a third of her dinner when she noticed Akko approaching, looking a lot more subdued. Hannah noticed as well, and gave an annoyed huff, but Diana ignored her as she fully turned her attention on Akko as she came to a stop next to their table. “Umm, thank you,” she said with a blush. “Lotte told me what they were doing and I knew they were laughing but I didn’t know why and not a lot of people would have done what you did so thank you, really!” she said all in a rush, some of her words stumbling over each other in her haste.

Diana raised a calming hand. “It was my pleasure, Akko. Please, think nothing of it.”

Despite Diana’s words, Akko bowed at the waist. “Still, I’m very thankful. Some people…they don’t get what it means to have a disability. It means a lot that you stood up for me. Not many would have.” The bow deepened even as Diana’s attention turned to the manager coming up behind her, balancing a large tray piled high with plates and cups. “Arigatou gozaimasu.” She started to rise-

“Watch your back, Kagari,” Anne said, her voice distracted, and any other day that would have been enough, Akko would have heard her, but now Diana knew the hearing aids weren’t working, and Diana tried to lunge out of her seat, hand reaching out-

“Akko, watch out!” she cried, just as Akko fully stood and turned, running right into her manager, who cried out in surprise even as she lost control of the tray of food and cups, and it all crashed to the ground. In the span of just a few seconds, it had gone from perfectly normal to chaos, and Diana grimaced and Barbara cried out in shock as food and beverages splashed on them…but as bad as they got it, the manager and Akko got it worse. Akko had frozen, face absolutely horrified as she stared at her manager, who merely wiped a handful of food off her clothes.

“Kagari. Office. _Now_!”

Akko practically disappeared from sight as she fled the scene, and Hannah started ranting. “Absolutely unacceptable, I expect better service from a bloody McDonalds, much less a sit down restaurant, she’s been bloody horrid all night, and-!”

Diana tuned the raving out as she stared after Akko, watching the brown hair bob out of sight. The girl had looked close to tears, and Diana couldn’t blame her. Her night must have been terrible. She hadn’t wanted any of what happened to happen. She sighed, looking down at her pants. They’d need to be dry cleaned.

“-truly am very sorry, this meal can be on the house, and if there’s anything I can do to make up for-”

“That won’t be necessary,” Diana cut her off. “It was an accident, these things happen. We’ll still pay, but if you wouldn’t mind getting boxes to go?”

Anne F. stared at her for a moment. “That’s awfully generous of you.” She nodded. “Very well, thank you for your kindness and understanding, I’ll be right back with your check and those boxes.” She turned and left, and both Barb and Hannah glared at Diana.

“That _is_ bloody generous of you,” Hannah fairly growled even while Barbara was wiping the worst of the mess from her clothes with the napkins from the table. “I think it’s perfectly acceptable to get this dinner on the house after what happened.”

“Then you don’t have to pay!” Diana snapped back. “If she was rude? If she wasn’t trying her hardest to be a good waitress? I can understand. But she _tried_ , and had her hearing aids fail on her, and had a table of jackasses ridicule her, and then had an entire tray of food and drinks get dumped all over her right after she thanked me for standing up for her. She’s had a _terrible_ evening, and is likely to get disciplined for a great deal that wasn’t entirely her fault. She doesn’t get paid much as a server, and I will _not_ punish her financially for trying her damndest to be a good waitress for us!”

Hannah and Barbara were staring at her, now, more shocked than angry, eyes wide and mouths slightly agape. Diana couldn’t blame them…she couldn’t remember the last time that she had gotten so passionate about something. Thankfully, that was when the manager returned with their boxes and their check, and Diana accepted the thin black book, looking at the total. $67.13. Right. She quickly did the math in her head. $13.42 would be a twenty percent tip. She grabbed her purse and pulled out her wallet, pulling out four twenties and a ten. “Keep the change,” she said as she put the bills into the book and handed it back to the manager. “She’s not going to be sent home, right?”

Anne F. tucked the book under her arm. “No. I’ll speak with her about this, but won’t send her home. And she’s got spare clothes due to previous…incidents.” She tilted her head. “Thank you for your patronage.”

Diana turned her attention to her salad, quickly getting it put into her take away box. “I’ll see you two back home. Don’t forget your course work. Enjoy your audiobook.” Slipping her purse over her shoulder, she slid out of the booth, taking up her cane and her salad. “Ta.” That said, she left, ignoring the slightly hurt looks that Hannah and Barbara were giving her.

Was she being cold? Yes. But they knew she didn’t like bullies, and while Akko certainly could have done better, the two of them had been rude towards their server for no real reason. Unlocking her car and sliding into the driver’s seat, she started the car up, sighing as the growl of the engine and exhaust eased some of the tension that held her. She just needed to go for a drive and relax. After that? Go home, study a little, go to bed. That was a good plan.

Her first stop was a scenic overlook of the town, and she finished her salad while sitting on the bonnet of her car, enjoying the solitude of the spot. After she finished eating her dinner, she did return home, noting the presence of Barbara’s BMW in her spot, though when she entered the apartment, the girls were scarce, light shining from under their doors. Honestly, Diana didn’t mind some space. She’d talk to them in the morning, after they all had the chance to calm down.

And yet, Diana found that she wasn’t calming down, even after she got to her room and took off her soiled pants. She couldn’t help but think about Akko’s almost broken expression at the very end there, and her gut twisted painfully. She just…couldn’t abide the thought of the other girl having such an expression on her face for very long.

She blinked, looking down at her phone’s display that showed the search she had just put in almost subconsciously: _what time do Applebee’s workers get done with work?_ Apparently midnight on weekdays. Glancing at the neatly folded pajamas that waited on her bed for her, she instead made her way over to her wardrobe where her other slacks were hanging. She would meet Akko, face-to-face, and explain that she didn’t have any great ire towards her. But as she was pulling her pants on, she frowned thoughtfully. It was still quite a while before Akko’s shift would end. Once she got her pants on, she headed over to her desk that had her laptop resting on top of it. Starting it up and opening YouTube, she searched ‘ _busker Luna Nova guitar player_ ’ on a whim. To her surprise, she got a hit. Even more surprisingly was the first comment that proudly proclaimed: ‘ _hey, this was me, and here’s my channel if you liked my music!_ ’ with a link to a YouTube channel. Hmm, color her curious _and_ interested…

_Well_ , Diana thought to herself as she clicked the link, _now I’ve got something to do to pass the time_. With that thought, she clicked on the first of many videos that she would watch while she passed the time until she would once more get into her car and return to the person who was destined to change her very life.


	5. It's a Date!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of Akko's shift passes with no more major incidents, which is a relief, even if the relative tranquility came far too late to be really useful. Still, given that her entire shift could have been a straight disaster, she'd have to take what she could get. Luckily for her, the day isn't _quite_ over yet, and she is greeted by a surprise in the parking lot after her shift ends...

It's a Date!

Akko sat in Finnelan’s office, feeling very much like a glum plum. Tonight was, without a doubt, the very worst shift she had ever had, even worse than the wet t-shirt incident. She sighed, fingers fiddling with her right hearing aid. She still wasn’t sure why it had malfunctioned…perhaps an interfering radio signal? Croix had said that that could happen sometimes, especially with certain cell phone providers…or was it something about Bluetooth? She’d have to ask.

Diana was going to hate her, wasn’t she? The thought was like a knife in her heart, twisting sharply, and she grimaced. All she had wanted to do was to provide the best service she could, and she had failed so absolutely utterly. Pestering them, forgetting the lemon, having those idiots make fun of her, and then dumping food all over Diana. God, she felt so embarrassed! Why did _everything_ have to go wrong?!

But still…Diana had stuck up for her. Some of the almost overwhelming shame and sadness diminished as a flicker of warmth blossomed, and despite it all, a small smile touched her lips. Diana had confronted the young men when so many wouldn’t have. And she had _touched Akko’s shoulder_! That was something Akko certainly hadn’t expected in a million billion _trillion_ years, but Diana’s hand had rested naturally on her shoulder, warm and firm and reassuring and comforting and…oh, gosh, what she wouldn’t do to feel that touch again, especially when Diana had squeezed her shoulder comfortingly once Finnelan had showed up. Everything else had been straight garbage, but that? That was nice.

A change in the air pressure of the room and a slight brightening on the light level as the door leading to the room was opened, and she turned in her seat to look at Finnelan, a wincing look of apology on her face, and Finnelan stared at her for a moment before deflating with a sigh, her head shaking as she shut the door behind her. Coming around so that she could sit behind the desk Akko was seated in front of, she pointed at the hearing aid before her hands started to move. ‘ _Working yet_?’ they asked, the movement still slow, jerky, unsure. Finnelan still wasn’t very confident in her sign, but she was getting much better.

Akko shook her head. “No. It’s still not working.”

Finnelan’s hand came up to her mouth before drawing across it, pointer finger lifting in an arc. ‘ _Lips_ ,’ they signed, Finnelan’s most used word, and Akko dutifully focused on her mouth. “Miss Kagari, you made a mess out there,” those lips slowly formed into that all-encompassing silence.

“I knooow,” she groaned, sinking even further into her seat, feeling lower than dirt as the memory of food and drinks splashing against Diana’s clothes replayed again in her head, bringing a fresh feeling of shame and self-loathing. Why couldn’t she have done _better_?!

“You know as well as anyone that most of the time when a customer complains, it’s largely for the sake of complaining or because waitresses are somehow not worth treating well.” Finnelan paused, rolling her eyes, her hand forming the letter ‘a’ and tapping twice against the side of her head, and Akko couldn’t help the small smile that touched her lips. Assholes indeed. Finnelan was harsh, but she was fair, and while she judged her staff to almost impossible to reach standards, she was also fiercely protective of them. If a customer wasn’t entirely justified in their complaints, any assurances to discipline said waiter or waitress was usually followed by ‘what an asshole’ once the belligerent customer was out the door. Plus, she had taken it upon herself to start learning ASL once Akko had started working at her Applebee’s, and while she had chewed out Akko a _bunch_ of times before, Akko couldn’t help but feel some fondness towards the old battleax of a woman, even if she had ranted and railed at how much Finnelan seemed to ride her ass to Amanda many, many, _many_ times before.

“Now, we both know this is not one of those situations,” Finnelan’s lips continued silently on. “Quite a few complaints have been levied. Bothering them while they were trying to eat. Forgetting a customer preference. And then, of course, dumping the food and drinks of another table all over two of them.” A pause. “I offered for their meal to be on the house.” Akko winced at that, her gaze dropping to the surface of the desk that lay between them, her ears growing hot with shame. That…that meant money out of her pocket. Not that she was going to get a tip anyway, but…oh, this wasn’t good, but she wasn’t really surprised.

Finnelan moved her hand into Akko’s line of sight, tapping the top of the desk, and Akko looked up to her manager’s face once more. “The blonde insisted on paying. She also seemed almost eager to continue to defend you even after everything else had happened. On top of that, she even left a twenty-two dollar tip, around thirty percent of the total bill.” She fished the money in question out of her pocket, placing it on the desk before sliding it over to Akko's side.

Akko stared at the money for a shocked moment before she numbly took it. What? No…that had to have been a mistake. There was no way! “What?” she said out loud, completely dumbfounded by the very thought.

“Trust me, I’m as surprised as you are,” Finnelan said, and though Akko couldn’t hear the words themselves, the look on Finnelan’s face made it abundantly clear: they were delivered in an extremely dry tone of voice. “Now. I have to give you a reprimand for this, of course, but we’ll keep it verbal, given the circumstances.” She turned around, grabbed a paper bag with ‘A. Kagari’ written on it with sharpie. Facing Akko once again, she handed the bag over, and Akko accepted it without a word. Her spare clothes. Kept on hand after the Triple Chocolate Meltdown incident. “Get changed out of your dirty clothes, and get back out there. We’re busy enough that they need you out there. And try to get that damned hearing aid up and running, would you?” Finnelan said, and Akko nodded and left the office, heading towards the staff restroom, bag held in her arms.

Diana had still paid, and not only that, she had tipped. She had tipped very generously, at that! As Akko changed into the fresh uniform, her thoughts kept circling back to that fact. For a dinner where nothing went wrong and she gave good service, she’d be happy with a twenty percent tip, though tips seemed to hover around fifteen percent, most of the time. It was too easy to simply double the sales tax of eight percent.

But Diana had given a thirty percent tip! Even after all of _that_! Akko finished clipping her almost gaudy nametag that stated she was deaf to the clean uniform shirt and looked up into the mirror, and a small, tentative smile touched her lips. Not all heroes wore capes and not all knights came in shining armor, apparently. Then the smile wavered, and then disappeared, a sense of sadness washing over Akko. Shame, though. Diana was obviously a student, likely up at Luna Nova. Blytonbury wasn’t very big, but it was big enough, and if they were seniors at college and this was still the first time Akko had seen any of them at her Applebee’s then it wasn’t like they frequented the place. And given the nightmare of their dining experience tonight, they were likely running for the hills and would never ever ever come back. Diana had been so very good to her, but Akko would likely never see her again. Ah, well, she had seen her once, had had the chance to hear her voice, had felt her hand on her shoulder. That was enough for Akko. It _had_ to be enough for Akko.

With that thought in mind, she took a deep and bracing breath, squared her jaw and shoulders, and left the restroom, heading back into the fray once more.

Apparently the powers that be decided that she had suffered enough that night. Someone had already cleaned up the spill and cleaned the table, and Akko stared at the empty booth for a moment before sighing and getting back to work. She still had other tables to serve.

Her shift went on. Dinner rush finally slowed down, and then she had her own dinner break that she spent uncharacteristically subdued, sitting in the breakroom with some of the others, silently eating leftover shepherd’s pie that Amanda had made a few days ago. She felt somewhat grateful for her deafness at that point. Normally she didn’t mind listening to and joining in on the breakroom banter, but now she just kinda wanted to be left alone. Then her break ended, and she returned to the floor. By now it was late enough that things had really slowed down…the busiest part of the restaurant was the bar. The 4-9 shift wrapped up and left, emptying the place out further, and Akko started to begin the final clean up tasks, closing down one of the sections and thoroughly wiping down the tables, sweeping and mopping the floor and vacuuming the rug in between making sure the handful of customers she still had were taken care of.

And through it all, her thoughts kept returning to the beautiful Diana. She knew she was…oh, what was the word? Pining? Yeah, pining, she was pining for the blonde, but who could blame her? She had just been so beautiful! And kind and brave and generous and oh my gosh that sexy _accent_ of hers! And if Akko wasn’t mistaken, those small little smiles and the fact that Diana had chugged her water for Akko made it seem like she was at the very least interested, even if that thought just blew Akko’s mind. Imagine someone like Diana being interested in _her_. The thought was baffling, to say the least. Almost laughable, really.

Then, _finally_ , midnight rolled around, and after getting her jacket and purse and her dirty clothes that she had stuffed into the paper bag, she joined Amanda and the few others at the exit. Giving one last glance at the interior of the now dark restaurant to make sure there was nothing amiss, they all left, Finnelan locking the doors behind them as the rest of them made their way to the parking lot. By this point of the day, Akko was very much looking forward to going home, taking a shower, and passing out in her bed. She was tired after the rather insane events of the day.

Yawning heavily, she rounded the corner of the building…and froze. There was a very expensive car, parked away from the others. But more important as the person sitting on its hood, head of blonde hair gleaming like white gold in the lights of the parking lot. There was…no. No way. That couldn’t be who she thought it was! “Pinch me,” she murmured, and Amanda looked up at her from where she was getting her car keys before she glanced in the direction that Akko was looking. To Akko’s surprise, Amanda didn’t look confused so much as she looked almost livid, face drawing into a tight, displeased scowl.

“Are you kidding me?” her mouth silently snarled, and Akko couldn’t help but be surprised and confused at her friend’s reaction.

“What?” she asked, and Amanda glanced back at her before she started to sign.

‘ _Remember that racer I was telling you about before, the one who kicked my butt at the last race I went to?_ ’ her hands asked, her face still a tight scowl.

“Yeah?”

‘ _Yeah, that’s her. Diana Cavendish. I’d destroy her if she didn’t have some fancy car that us mere mortals couldn’t hope to afford_.”

“Diana…Cavendish,” Akko murmured thoughtfully, looking once more to the blonde who was doing something on her phone. Then Amanda was tapping her on the shoulder, getting her attention again, and Akko couldn’t help but notice the now suspicious look that Amanda was giving her.

 _‘How do you know her?_ ’

“Oh! Um…she was a guest earlier. Ordered the Tuscan Garden Chicken Salad.”

“Damn, if I had known I would have spit into it…” Amanda’s lips formed, and Akko frowned.

“Amanda!” she hissed angrily. After all that Diana did for her? “Shut up! She’s actually the best customer I’ve had in a long time! She really helped me out when she didn’t have to.”

Amanda stared at her for a long moment. “I can’t believe it…” she said before shaking her head. ‘ _You like her, don’t you?_ ’ she signed.

“No!” Akko immediately protested before she wilted under Amanda’s disbelieving stare. “Maybe…” she hedged before she sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Yes,” she finally admitted, and Amanda nodded.

‘ _Turn on your hearing aid, would you? I’m getting tired of signing._ ’

Akko nodded, finger going up to her right ear and finding the switch for the aid. Wincing slightly in anticipation of another burst of static and feedback, she turned it on…and breathed a sigh of relief as normal evening noises sounded in her ear. For the first time in hours, she could hear again.

“You good?” Amanda asked, eyeing her.

“Yeah.”

“Good, let’s go.” Amanda grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the parking lot. “Yo, Cavenbitch!” she called out, the loud words causing Akko’s heart to lurch in her chest.

“Amanda, don’t-!” she protested, but it was too late, Diana’s head came up, and even at the distance that they were and in the darkness of the parking lot, Akko could see how blue eyes narrowed.

“O’Neill,” came the icy response, and Akko glanced at her friend to see the wide smirk and the challenging glint in green eyes.

“Amanda. Please. _Don’t_.” Her words were sharp, in a tone of voice that she so very rarely used, especially with her friends, and Amanda’s stride faltered for a half step as she really looked at Akko’s face.

The smirk fell away, some of that challenging glint fading, and she sighed. “Fine, but only because you’re my friend,” she muttered as they drew close enough to Diana to talk normally. “Hey, so I heard you helped out Akko. Inasmuch as you’re a bitch on the track, I appreciate it.”

Diana stared at the two of them for a moment. “It was my pleasure,” she said, voice cool and firm and regal, and Akko wanted to swoon right there. “If you don’t mind, I wish to speak with Akko alone.”

Now it was Amanda’s turn to glance between Akko and Diana. “Yeah, sure. Just don’t take too long, I’m her ride and it’s late.” She turned and started to walk away, and Akko narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the retreating back. Amanda gave in way too easily, what was she planning? Then, just as she was afraid of, Amanda turned back around, facing the two of them as she walked backwards to her waiting Subaru. “Hey! If you two start making out, I’m leaving!” she called out, and oh, gosh darn it, Akko _knew_ she was gonna do something like that!

“Amanda!” she cried out, blushing heavily as she threw the paper bag with her dirty clothes at her laughing friend, who easily ducked out of the way of the impromptu projectile. “Will you just get out of here!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Amanda laughed, bending down to scoop up the bag before continuing on her way, and Akko wearily sighed as she turned back to Diana, apology already on her lips.

“I’m so, so sorry, she doesn’t have a filter!” she said before she paused, head tilting slightly. Wait…was that a _blush_ on Diana’s face?

“I’m…well aware,” Diana muttered before coughing into her fist. “O’Neill is infamous on the racetrack for her…how do you say, ‘smack talk’? Regardless of that, I really did want to talk to you. We didn’t have the chance after the accident that happened. I feel as though I owe you an apology.”

Akko stared at her, wide-eyed and surprised. “ _You_ owe _me_ an apology?” she spluttered, and Diana chuckled, one of the most beautiful sounds Akko had ever heard, second only to Chariot’s singing.

“Yes, Akko, I do.” She reached behind her and grabbed two cups that Akko recognized as coming from one of the more expensive coffee shops in town. “It’s late, so I didn’t want to get you a coffee, but would you like a hot chocolate?”

“Would I?!” Akko beamed before almost eagerly accepting the offered cup, taking a sip and groaning blissfully as the rich, sweet velvet of the hot chocolate washed over her tongue. “Mmm, that’s really good. Thanks so much!” She took another sip, glancing up through her eyelashes at Diana.

“You’re welcome. It was no trouble, I assure you,” Diana said with a soft smile, and Akko nearly melted into a puddle of goo at that. Then that smile turned almost timid, and Diana said something, but it was mumbled, and Akko couldn’t quite…

“I’m sorry,” she winced. “I didn’t hear you. I’ve still only got the one aid working right now, so…”

“Oh!” Diana said, eyes widening. “I’m sorry, I figured that…” she drew off, setting down her own cup on her car’s hood. Then Akko blinked in surprise as Diana’s hands began to move. ‘ _Would you prefer for me to use ASL? I’m more familiar with BSL, but-_ ’

“Marry me!”

They both froze at the blurted words, and Akko felt her face color in a deep, _deep_ blush. She laughed nervously, fingers fidgeting with the cup of hot chocolate even as Diana’s brow quirked. “Pardon?” she asked.

“Haha, you know, like, a joke, right?” Akko stammered, and by the amused curl of Diana’s lips, she didn’t buy it. It wasn’t a joke, it was just…gosh, Diana was so _perfect_! She stuck up for her, she left a great tip, and she was here, in the parking lot, waiting for her after her shift with a really good hot chocolate. And to top that off, _she knew sign language_!

“A joke? Really?” Diana asked, still smiling, her eyes twinkling. “Well, given that we haven’t yet had a date yet, I’m afraid I must decline. I would have to know more about you before I could accept such an offer, as tempting as it is.” She gave a short, amused huff. “And going back to my reason for being here, I do owe you an apology for the behavior of my companions.”

A lot of things that Akko wanted to say to that, mainly revolving around that fact that the ones who were actually mean to her weren’t here, but…eh, she’d take what she could get. Plus, she’d much rather be with Diana than around the other two. She shrugged. “Well, I did kind of ruin your dinner, so…no hard feelings?”

Diana was looking at her with a strange expression on her face before her gaze dropped to her own drink. “That’s right, you did. I suppose that means…that you owe me another dinner?” she asked, voice tentative, and hope flared through Akko. Did she really mean-? “Are you free this weekend?”

Akko’s face split into a wide grin. “ _Yes_!” she cried out, almost hopping on the balls of her feet in her excitement. “Would Saturday work? I know this great ramen place near campus. A bit hole-in-the-wall, but the food is amazing!”

“That sounds excellent, Akko. Do you want to meet there at five?”

Oh my God this was actually happening! “Yeah, that would be great.” She was going to go on a dinner date with Diana. “I’m really looking forward to it!”

It was at the moment that the opening notes of Marvin Gaye’s _Let’s Get It On_ started blasting across the parking lot, and Akko whirled to glare at Amanda, who was grinning broadly at her through the open windows of her car as the lyrics began:

 _‘I've been really tryin', baby_ _  
Tryin' to hold back this feeling for so long  
And if you feel like I feel, baby  
Then, c'mon, oh, c'mon…’_

“I’m gonna kill her,” Akko growled under her breath, and Diana sighed heavily.

“I’m inclined to agree with that sentiment,” she said, but then smiled. “So it’s a date then?”

Akko beamed back at Diana. “Yes, it’s a date!”

‘ _Let's get it on_  
 _Ah, baby, let's get it on_  
 _Let's love, baby_  
 _Let's get it on, sugar_  
 _Let's get it on…’_

“Amanda, will you _turn that off!_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So ends the first arc of Love Signs A Way. A lot can happen in one day, apparently! I'm currently only planning two arcs, and the second one will follow Akko as she strives in earnest to become an idol, and it will follow the Seven Words of Arcturus, which translate surprisingly well into a non-magical AU if you squint hard enough...
> 
> Thanks so much for joining me on this little journey! I'm not sure when I will be able to start the next arc, but I hope to see you then! I promise to try and make this hiatus as short as possible. Thank you for all your kind words and support. Catch you on the flip side!


	6. The Seven Words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ursula Callistis is a speech pathologist who has a very special client, a young deaf woman who Ursula believes will take the world be storm, and she is dedicated to helping her achieve that goal. She would even go so far as to say that she is genuinely fond of Akko Kagari and her bubbly, irrepressible spirit. Thus, she is happy for Akko when she is told that she has a date. That happiness fades when she hears just who Akko is going on a date with.
> 
> After all, Ursula has her own secrets, and she knows how the Cavendish family feels about Shiny Chariot. But despite her own personal feelings, Ursula knows that it is time to introduce Akko to the Seven Words of Arcturus...
> 
> ...for better or for worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! It has been a hot minute since this story has been updated. It's still a bit on the back burner at the moment, but I figured posting the next chapter (that actually introduces the Plot of the story) for Diakko Day 2021 would be nice. I hope you enjoy reading this chapter, and let me know what you think!

The Seven Words

Ursula Callistis was nothing if not a woman of structure and order. Even though she knew that it wasn’t entirely healthy, she tried to organize everything that she could. While she was fully aware that she couldn’t change how outside elements could impact her day, everything that she _could_ control, she did so. Her wake up time. Her morning routine of showering, brushing her teeth, tying her navy hair back into a low ponytail. When she left her house to get to the bus stop on time, what coffee shop she stopped at for her coffee and pastry before reaching her office, all that and more, through her entire day to when she lay her head down to sleep. And while she couldn’t control the influence of others on her routine, she planned for it by adding buffer time tempered by experience. Mrs. Laframboise liked to chat, and Ursula save a good eight minutes for pleasantries that she didn’t have to set aside for Mr. Smith whose demeanor was far more taciturn when Ursula bought the morning paper from his stand.

She liked structure, and was working on being less flustered when her routine was impacted badly enough to throw off her carefully managed timeline. She knew that her compulsion was borderline OCD and she was speaking to her own therapist about it, but she knew that a part of her that lay at the depth of her very heart and soul would be resistant to fully letting it go.

After all, the last time that she didn’t ensure that the planning was _perfect_ and that everything was accounted for…

She paused in the middle of setting up the tea set for her next patient, mind quailing at how very close it had gotten to going to a Very Bad Place. Hands shaking slightly, she put the tea set down on the low table between the comfy overstuffed chairs of her office, and she sat down, closing her eyes and breathing deep and slow, centering herself.

 _It wasn’t your fault_ , she told herself even as a dark part of herself hissed back from the furthest corners of her mind:

_‘You should have checked yourself.’_

_The set director had said that he had performed the final checks,_ she reminded herself.

_‘People got hurt because of you.’_

_No one could have known about the faulty wiring and the rat that had chewed through them,_ she thought.

 _‘_ Children _got hurt because of you!’_

 _Children got hurt because they wanted to watch Shiny Chariot. I am no longer that woman, and I am doing what I can to help those that were hurt._ It was that thought that seemed to send her darker voices back down to the depths where they belonged. Yes, children got hurt, but from what she understood, they were all leading full lives despite what had happened to them all those years ago. And all she could do was make sure that she and Croix continued to help them as they needed it.

She let out a long, slow breath, feeling some semblance of serenity returning to her. Speaking of those that needed her help…she glanced at the clock. It was only a few minutes until her next appointment. Well, perhaps a bit more accurate to say that it was a few minutes _past_ when the appointment was supposed to start, but this girl always struggled to be on time. Ursula smiled softly to herself as she poured herself a cup of tea. Normally such chaos would bother her, but her patient was so consistent in her tardiness that you could practically set a watch by it, to say nothing of planning around it. Chuckling, Ursula lifted the tea cup, inhaling the gentle fragrance. Why, any moment now, Akko would open the door and peek sheepishly around the corner with an apology ready, just like always. Ursula shook her head fondly before bringing the steaming cup closer to her mouth so that she could-

The door slammed open, and Akko Kagari burst into the room, her arms lifted as triumphantly as if she placed first in an Olympic event even as Ursula tried desperately not to spill the tea that was sent to sloshing in her cup after Ursula jumped at the energetic entrance. “I’ve got a date!” Akko shouted out, the words slightly muddled, and her entire body radiated with excited joy as she spun, her hair flaring out as she shut the door behind her.

Letting out a breath, Ursula pat her upper chest, trying to soothe her racing heart as she put her tea cup back down, Akko banging around near the entrance of the office as she slung her shoulder bag down onto the floor and kicked off her shoes and hung up her jacket on the rack by the door. “Well, this is exciting news,” Ursula called out, watching as Akko finally bounced over to the sitting area before practically leaping into her favorite chair, folding her legs up under her as she sat cross-legged. “Do you want to talk about that?”

Akko nodded, still beaming excitedly. “Oh, do I ever!”

Ursula laughed at that. “Okay, okay. So, tell me, boy or girl?” They had discussed some of Akko’s crushes previously, and Akko wasn’t one to hide who she was, to include being pansexual.

“Neither,” Akko breathed dreamily. “She’s a goddess.”

“Oh?” Ursula asked as she quirked an amused brow. “It’s a lucky girl that can attract the attention of a goddess.”

Akko blushed a little at that, fingers fidgeting with the pillow that she pulled into her lap. “Okay, so maybe she’s not a goddess, and _maybe_ Lotte’s mushy romance novels have rubbed off on me a bit, but oh, wow, I wish you had been there to see her!”

Ursula picked up her teacup once more and gestured towards the set on the table with it. “So, does this lady have a name?” she asked as Akko happily reached forward and began to pour herself some tea and snag some of the cookies from the tray.

“Yeah, Diana Cavendish.”

If Akko wasn’t so busy with getting her tea, she would have noticed the way that Ursula snapped her gaze to stare at her with something akin to horror, her face paling before she schooled her features even as her heart raced in her chest. _Is this some cruel twist of fate? What has brought those two girls together?_ Fingers trembling slightly, she brought her cup up to her lips, taking a measured lip. “Oh?” she asked, her voice somehow steady despite everything. “That’s not a very common name.”

Akko shrugged as she sat back in her seat. “I think she’s from Britain or something, she had an accent. Maybe a student up at Luna Nova?”

Okay, Ursula was a bit more in control now. “That’s not unlikely.” _What’s unlikely is that two of the people who were hurt in that show in Japan so long ago met again years later in America!_ “So, how did you meet?” Akko’s face lit up at that, and she launched into the story while Ursula sat and listened, trying her best to give the appropriate responses where they were needed even as her mind raced. But then Akko brought up how her hearing aids went on the fritz, and Ursula frowned. “Have you let Croix know about that yet?” she asked, and Akko’s face immediately turned sheepish.

“No?” she asked, and Ursula sighed.

“Akko, you’re supposed to immediately let Croix know if something goes wrong with your hearing aids.”

“I knoooow, it’s just that I was so excited after I got my date that I forgot to send the email and I didn’t have any problems the next day so I forgot to actually report it.”

“Oh, Akko,” Ursula said with another sigh. “You’re one of a very few number of people that these new aids are being tested on. It’s very important that you report everything on them, so that they can be updated and then mass produced for those that lost their hearing like you did.”

Akko’s face fell, and she stared down at her lap, fingers playing with the pillow once more. “I know. I’m sorry, I’ll do that right after this meeting.” She paused. “I know how lucky I am that Chariot helped get me this opportunity. I don’t want to waste it.”

Ursula’s heart twinged in her chest at Akko’s words. She knew Akko pretty well at this point, and knew that Akko wouldn’t intentionally do the wrong thing, and she seemed contrite enough. Perhaps it was time to have some pity on her. “Speaking of this meeting, shall we get started?”

Akko’s face lit back up at that, and Ursula chuckled before beginning their session. Akko had made significant progress so far, and Ursula was terribly proud of her. She was also fully aware of why Akko was striving so hard. Hmm. Perhaps it was finally time…

They went through their various exercises, focusing on Akko’s pronunciation both while her hearing aids were on and off. Then, of course, there came going up and down the scales and matching pitch both by ear and by muscle memory, the latter of which was _extremely_ difficult and something that had to be done not by talent but by hard work and repetition, of singing the same note over and over and over again while paying strict attention to precisely how one’s diaphragm, larynx, tongue, and lips were situated. This was something that Akko simply couldn’t do when she first started working with Ursula, and now she was completely on pitch when her hearing aids were on, and was able to almost always match notes in songs that she knew already when the aids were off. And other than her taking more time and care when speaking when the hearing aids were off, one couldn’t even tell she was deaf when she was talking with them off.

Yes. It was time.

Their session was starting to draw to a close when Ursula cleared her throat, getting Akko’s attention. “So, I know that you’ve been anxious to get started on becoming an idol like…like Chariot was,” she started slowly. “Are you familiar with her belief in the Seven Words of Arcturus?”

Akko’s face lit up at that, and she lowered the cookie that she was just about to eat. “Yeah! She drew from ancient mythology, especially from Bardic influences from Celtic legend, right?”

“Yes, Akko. She…she fully believed that striving for the ideals of the Seven Words would make her successful, that it wasn’t just how popular she was or how much money she was worth. If she was truly able to live by the Seven Words, then she was doing right as Shiny Chariot.”

Akko’s eyes practically had stars gleaming in them, and her hands were clasped in front of her chest. “Oh, wow! I know the original words because they were worked into Chariot’s shows and her merchandise and stuff, but I didn’t know about their actual meanings…at least not like that. Hey, that’s a good goal! Once I manage to actually live by the seven ideals like Chariot, then I-”

“She didn’t live by all seven!” The words came out far sharper than Ursula had meant them to, and Akko stared at her with shocked eyes. A biting pain in her palms got Ursula’s attention, and she looked down to see her hands tightened into fists hard enough that her knuckles were white. She had to consciously relax them before she continued speaking more softly. “She tried. She really did. But she was not able to live her life in accordance with the Seventh Word.”

Akko was staring at her, brow slightly furrowed. “Miss Ursula…did you know Chariot?”

It took a great deal of self-restraint for Ursula not to give a humorless laugh at that. Did she know Chariot? No one knew Chariot and her weaknesses better than her. “Yes,” she said once she was sure that she wasn’t going to give anything away. “I knew her.” She smiled gently. “After all, if it weren’t for Chariot, we’d have never met.”

And, oh, how her heart twisted in her chest at how Akko _beamed_ at that, not realizing the cold hard truth behind Ursula’s words. If it weren’t for Chariot, then Akko and Ursula would never have had to meet. “Yeah! I’m really glad that Chariot sent you as my Speech Pathologist, I’ve learned so much from you!”

It took herculean effort for Ursula to keep her smile on her face. “Of course.” Change the subject. Change the subject! “Now, the good news is, I think that you’re already living by the First Word: _Noctu Orfei Aude Fraetor_. The full translation, and something that I believe will resonate deeply within you given how hard you’ve been working, is ‘Those that try to achieve their dreams must go through hardships. There may come times when you fail and lose sight of that dream. But you must never let the flame in your heart go out. Burn that flame brightly, and strive for your ideal place.’ Simply, _strive for your ideal place_.” Akko was staring at her with wide eyes that now glimmered with awe. “You have pushed past adversity that would have made so many others quit. You could have stopped well before this point and known a high quality of life, but you never gave up on your dream, even when it seemed impossible to achieve. So long as you keep it up, I have no doubt that you will succeed. Keep striving for your ideal place, okay?”

“Okay!” Akko grinned back. “I can definitely do that. I won’t stop until I’m done!”

Ursula let herself grin at that before she glanced at the clock. “Well, it appears as though that is all the time we have for today. Good job, Akko.”

“Awww, it always seems like the time goes by too quick!” Akko whined even as she stood, snagging a couple more cookies and draining the tea from her cup before she started to head towards the door. But before she reached it, she paused, looking over her shoulder, a curious frown on her face. “Hey, Ursula?”

“Yes, Akko?”

“If I’ve already achieved the meaning of the first word, what’s the second?”

Ursula paused before smiling gently. “ _Phaidoari Afairynghor_ : you do not get the things that you dream of, you get the things you work for.”

Now Akko’s curious frown turned confused. “But…isn’t that what I’ve already done? What I’ve been doing?”

“It…does seem that way, doesn’t it?” Ursula murmured before she strode over the window looking out over the city, her fingers idly playing with the leaves of the plants she had on the windowsill. “And yet…if you look deep into your heart, do you feel that you’ve completely achieved the word?”

Akko’s voice was low and thoughtful as she answered. “No. It doesn’t.”

Ursula stared out over the busy city streets, her mind wandering. “It feels like there’s something missing, doesn’t it? It’s obvious that you are working hard, anyone with eyes can see that. But there’s a missing piece of the puzzle that you need to find before you truly get there.” She turned around, leaning against the windowsill, crossing her arms over her chest. “I remember it-” she started before catching herself before she could slip any further. “Er, rather, I remember Chariot mentioning how she _knew_ when she achieved each of the six words that she did. She used to joke that it was like the bards who had first used the words were whispering across the ages that she had done it.”

Akko pouted. “Well, what do you think I’m doing wrong? Like you said, I’m working my tail off, so to stumble here, when it feels so close…” she drew off before turning hopeful eyes to Ursula. “Hey, you said that you knew Chariot, and she obviously got in contact with you to start working with me. Can you send her a letter? I haven’t gotten any mail from her in ages.”

Ursula blinked, drawing slightly back, the plants behind her rustling against her shoulders. “Oh, Akko, I don’t think that’s such a good-”

“Don’t worry, Ursula, I trust you! Just ask if she can send a letter or something about the Seven Words. I think it’d be really cool to learn more about the Seven Words from Shiny Chariot herself!”

 _I trust you_. Those words were like a physical blow to the gut, and Ursula flinched, only just barely managing to cover it up with a cough. “I’ll…see what I can do,” she promised weakly, and Akko gave her a beaming smile before she was gathering her things and bounding towards the door. “Oh, and Akko,” Ursula called out, hoping that Akko wouldn’t notice how pale her face was. When Akko turned around with a questioning smile, Ursula grinned back at her. “Don’t forget to let Croix know about the issues you had with your hearing aids. And…have fun on your date.”

Aaand there was another million watt smile. “I won’t forget, thanks for reminding me, and we’re gonna have a blast!” With that, she left in much the same way that she arrived, the door banging shut behind her, leaving Ursula alone in the room with thoughts that strayed back over the years, filling her with doubt.

Was she really doing the right thing? It was obvious that Akko wanted to be like the Shiny Chariot that she idolized, but would she be happy on that path? Would she be doomed to a tragic ending like the one that Chariot and her fans suffered? Or would she fade into obscurity, or even never draw the attention of the powers that be and never get her start? Akko was such a bright, wonderful young woman whose dreams shined like the stars in the heavens…would those dreams be enough to protect her from the harsh reality that destroyed the ambitions of so many others before her? That harsh reality that crushed the dreams of Shiny Chariot just as she was getting started.

Ursula sighed heavily, walking over to her desk before sitting down behind it. Right thing or not, she had set Akko on the path of the Seven Words. It would be up to Akko herself to walk that path, should she have the strength and will for it. Though…perhaps not alone. Her brow furrowed as she woke up her computer. She uncertain what to make of Akko and Diana Cavendish dating.

Then she thought of just how brilliantly Akko was smiling, how happily she burst into Ursula’s office to cry out the happy news. If Akko was happy, then Ursula would be happy for her, even if it defied logic and reason that the two of them would find each other after all this time. Ursula wouldn’t let her past traumas interfere with their happiness.

Then she paused, frowning as she leaned back in her chair as the thought struck her. Given how much Akko loved Chariot, she almost certainly would have mentioned that it was crazy that Miss Cavendish and she were at that fateful show. Was it possible that she didn’t know?

That could be trouble. Akko had been more than happy to accept _Chariot’s_ assistance in the years following the terrible incident. The Cavendishes were not so eager to accept that help, and even went so far as to serve a cease and desist in response to the many offers for financial assistance. Shiny Chariot had taken the leg of their heiress…they wanted nothing whatsoever to do with Chariot. So what was going to happen when a young woman who quite possible bore a seething hatred of Shiny Chariot in her heart started dating Akko, who loved and emulated Shiny Chariot?

Ursula couldn’t say. She just hoped that whatever the end result was, it wouldn’t break poor Akko’s heart…she had already been through too much already.

She glanced at the clock on her computer’s screen. Her next appointment was due soon, so she should probably clean up after Akko’s visit. Standing, she shot a worried glance at the door. _I really do hope that your date goes well, Akko…and all the ones that follow it, as well!_


End file.
